About David Neil
David Neil Ventker is a attorney specializing in business law, insurance defense, and maritime law. He serves as the managing partner at Ventker Henderson Stancliff, PLLC, located at 256 West Freemason Street, Norfolk, Virginia. The firm focuses on federal and state trial practice, handling cases in admiralty and maritime law, commercial litigation, business and corporate law, insurance coverage, intellectual property, employment law, and environmental law. Admitted to the Virginia State Bar in 1989, Ventker has been practicing law for over 36 years. He is also licensed in North Carolina, having been admitted in 1999. His legal career began after serving more than seven years on active duty with the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the United States Navy.
Following his military service, he joined Huff, Poole & Mahoney, PC, in Virginia Beach, where he was a member of the firm's executive committee and chairman of the litigation department. In 2002, he co-founded Ventker Henderson, PLLC. Ventker holds a Juris Doctor with honors from The Ohio State University Michael E. Moritz College of Law, earned in 1982. He also graduated with distinction with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Ohio State University in 1979. His practice areas include admiralty and maritime law, business law, and insurance defense.
He has represented clients in various maritime cases, including Jones Act defense, charter parties, vessel finance, Coast Guard investigations, pollution response, and marine insurance. In business law, he advises on business creation and management, contracts, business disputes, purchase and sale, and related matters. In insurance defense, he handles commercial and civil litigation. Ventker has been recognized by his peers, being selected to Super Lawyers from 2012 to 2025. He has also been honored as a member of Virginia’s “Legal Elite” by Virginia Business Magazine. He holds an “AV” peer-review rating from Martindale-Hubbell, earned by only the top 10% of practicing lawyers in the United States.
He is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, an invitation-only trial honorary society composed of less than one half percent of lawyers in the United States. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Maritime Law Association of the United States and as Chairman of the Inland Waters and Towing Committee of the Maritime Law Association. He is also a Proctor in Admiralty. Ventker is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Supreme Court of North Carolina, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The United States Court of Military Appeals. He has been recognized by Virginia Lawyers Weekly as a "Go To Lawyer" in 2025.
